Police, truckers stop attempted suicide on I-75 near Cheboygan

July 22, 2013

CHEBOYGAN COUNTY — A 26-year-old Rochester Hills man is undergoing medical treatment and a mental evaluation after he threatened to jump from the I-75 overpass at Levering Road, about eight miles west of Cheboygan, Sunday evening.

Troopers from the Cheboygan detachment of the Michigan State Police, along with numerous other agencies, were dispatched at approximately 5 p.m. to the Levering Road overpass for a male subject who had parked his vehicle on the road and was threatening to jump onto the freeway below.

He was standing outside the cement barrier of the overpass above the northbound lane and was armed with a knife. He had cuts to his arms and neck and would not let officers approach him, according to a news release from the state police.

During a three-hour standoff, police diverted traffic off I-75 and around the overpass via the off-ramp and on-ramp, then enlisted the help of three tractor-trailers by positioning the semis alongside each other below the overpass, shortening the fall distance if the man decided to jump.

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A state police negotiator was called to the scene and the subject eventually became mentally exhausted and dropped the knife, allowing officers to grab the subject and pull him back onto the overpass around 8 p.m.The man was transported to McLaren Northern Michigan in Petoskey for medical treatment and a mental evaluation.

Assisting at the scene were the Cheboygan County Sheriff’s Department, St. Ignace state police, Department of Natural Resources, Mackinaw City Police Department, Cheboygan Life Support and the Inverness Fire Department.